Pteraspis

Pteraspis is an extinct genus of pteraspidid heterostracan jawless fish. It existed from the Lochkovian to Eifelian epochs of the Devonian period in areas that are now the Americas and Europe.

Pteraspis

Apokryltaros · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PteraspidoideiPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Chordata

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 416.8 Mya to 393.47 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 419.62 Mya to 387.95 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 17 occurrencesDevonian — about 17 of 17 occurrencesDevonian420–419 Mya — about 1 occurrence419–418 Mya — about 3 occurrences418–417 Mya — about 3 occurrences417–416 Mya — about 2 occurrences416–415 Mya — about 2 occurrences415–414 Mya — about 2 occurrences414–413 Mya — about 2 occurrences413–411 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences411–410 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences394–393 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences393–392 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences392–391 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences391–390 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences390–388 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences388–387 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences416.8 Mya393.47 Mya420.3 Mya387.3 Mya

17 occurrences of Pteraspis on record, most of them in the Devonian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

17 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Old Red Sandstone — 51.86°N, 2.73°WBunte Ebbe — 50.71°N, 6.27°ESt. Maughans — 52.00°N, 2.00°WIvane Suite — 48.62°N, 25.87°EMaecuru — 2.00°S, 54.00°WBabin Sandstone — 48.83°N, 28.00°EFreshwater West — 52.48°N, 2.64°W

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The named rock units Pteraspis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pteraspis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Pteraspis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

111 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Pteraspis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

8 references

Each of the 17 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Pteraspis

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPteraspidoidei through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kner 1847